Most guitarists won't need to learn to fluently read sheet music, so you can set that aside. It's helpful, but not necessarily something everyone needs to know, unless they're planning on transposing from regular western notation to tablature.
From your description, you're unintentionally muting strings. The solution for this is actually just practice and form. Ideally, and in most circumstances, you'll be able to brace your thumb on the back of the neck, hold your hand out away from the neck, and have little/nothing else touching the guitar with your left hand except your thumb and fingertips.
Of course, it's hardly ever ideal and that's not always possible - in fact, some styles will make that truly impossible. I do one piece where I actually need to reach below the neck and use my thumb (from in front of the fretboard) and make a 9 fret stretch to use my pinky at the same time.
At the very bottom of this article is a video and it will have some really great finger stretches and they'll also help you be more precise with your playing. I highly, highly recommend watching it - and more than once.
That link should take you to a place where you can just right click it and save it to your hard drive.
Yeah, that sounds like what I'm doing. I know it will take time, but I would rather sit and practice to get it right than to end up playing sloppy and not be able to fix it. Thank you for the downloadable link. It will be a great help.
That's the way to do it.
I've had quite a few students and one of the things that takes the most time (and is the most difficult) is correcting their bad habits. If you don't develop them then you don't need to later spend time fixing them.
I have a new student. Well, sort of new. They'd never played before and it's such a treat to not have to correct bad habits. She's truly a joy to instruct and is coming along very, very well.
So, I'll add this:
Don't try to hurry it. It's like people who want to play fast. Don't. Start slow, learn good form, learn to be exact and precise, and the speed will build itself. Playing guitar is mostly muscle memory. Train the muscles right - right from the start.
Are you warming up and practicing drills? One of these days, I should write a bunch of them for people - but the video has some nice examples.
Yeah, I'm doing the caterpillar until I'm sick , then I'll move over to chord progressions for a bit.
I may be able to get my brother to help me out. He used to play, but he messed up one of his hands and didnt do the physical therapy to fix his fingers properly like a dumbass. Hell, putting a guitar back into his hands might make him work on it; I think I will give him a shot.
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